A study conducted by South African researchers on the basis of surveillance data has found that there is an increased risk of Covid-19 reinfection associated with the new omicron variant of corona virus .This is the first data-based study to suggest that Omicron may evade immunity from prior infection .
The study also found that the spread of the Beta or Delta variants was due to increased transmissibility, rather than immune escape.
“We find evidence of a substantial and ongoing increase in the risk of reinfection that is temporally consistent with the timing of the emergence of the Omicron variant in South Africa suggesting that its selection advantage is at least partially driven by an increased ability to infect previously infected individuals,” the authors of the study noted. They said they had found no evidence that reinfection risk increased as a result of the emergence of Beta or Delta variants.
The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, concludes that the increased risk of reinfection that Omicron poses can have important implications for public health planning, especially in nations which have developed high rates of immunity via prior infection. It is not yet known whether Omicron can also evade vaccine-induced immunity.
